Why Gulf Island Fabrication's Shares Dropped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of drilling platform fabricator Gulf Island Fabrication (NASDAQ: GIFI) dropped as much as 10% today after the company released earnings.

So what: Third quarter revenue was up 19% to $168.2 million, and the company swung to a profit of $3.3 million, or $0.23 per share. The profit was up from a $0.72 loss per share last year, but still fell five cents short of estimates, which is why investors are disappointed today.

Now what: One of the things to be worried about is a backlog decline from $537.0 million at the beginning of the year to $342.5 million at the end of last quarter. Part of the decline was from a project that may be taken over by another contractor, which isn't a good sign. Operations are just too volatile for me to jump into, and I'm seeing better values than Gulf Island Fabrication in the drilling business.

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